i.
makamingaw imong baybayon.
ang mga lusay sa imong hunasan,
ang tambasakan sa imong bakawan,
imong paghagunghong taliwa sa akong bilahan.
pagaisipon sa gihapon nga bugsay imong dila;
sa katuyoman, ang akong mga tudlo
manghiram sa bakasi
nga idlas sa akong mga kamot.
If the emotional is too on-top of the speaking voice, surrendering to a guiding thought ? an idea, a proposition, a question ? can pass as urgent.
In watching the premiere of Gutierrez ?Teng? Mangansakan?s Forbidden Memory last 2017, I had to quell a kind of rage gearing to erupt in the wake of a reopened rupture ? its closure is a delusion ? that has rapped the country?s memory for decades.
When we speak of Martial Law, we speak of the human rights violations; we speak of the infrastructural progress that birthed international debtswe are still paying today; we speak of Imelda?s lavishness, we speak of the Marcoses? theft; we speak against the temptation to just forget or move on.
What if one flees the enemy?or better, pursues him?only to find that the enemy is one?s self? Such is the fate of the post-colonial subject, whether identified with the colonizer or the colonized. Indeed, one could argue that the lines between colonizer and colonized, such as they were drawn, have long bled into each other.
Rogelio Braga?s novel ?Colon? takes to task the narratives of nationalism in the Philippines. It attempts to dismantle, or at least interrogate the meanings attached to the scholar and the savage, the capital and the provinces, re-presenting each one in what Braga hopes is a fresh light. It is possible to discern an effort to present a three-dimensional view of Philippine society, where the picturesque personalities of Manilenyo call center agent, Moro merchant, or university professor, are never quite what the reader thinks they will be.
SCENE 1 – EXT. PEACE MURAL/ INT. CAR – DAY
A peace mural is seen from inside a moving car. The view is hazy and we can barely see it.
AYESHA, 16, a pregnant Muslim lady is looking at something off screen.
SCENE 2 – WHITE LETTER ON A BLACK BACKGROUND: TITLE
SCENE 3 – EXT. TERRACE – DAY
We hear the neighbors fighting over a mango tree. DANNY, 30?s, a petite man, sees it from the terrace. He gets a little irritated, takes a stick of cigarette and puffs. There is a huge fruitless mango tree behind him.
Katitikan provides a platform for both Southern voices as traditionally understood in the scholarship, but also about scholarship that engages with the idea of the Philippines as a discourse on the South. There are no thematic requirements for the first, celebratory issue. Contributors may submit the following:
*Poems of not more than 70 lines each
*Short stories ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 words
*Flash fiction pieces ranging from 100 to 1,000 words
*A chapter of a novel, including novel synopsis, ranging from 2000 to 6000 words
*Essay and creative nonfiction ranging from 2500 to 4000 words
*One-act play, screenplay or an excerpt from a full-length play ranging from 10 to 40 pages
*Critical essays about Philippine Literature and/or the Philippine South ranging from 1500-5000 words in MLA format.